Thoresen Car Ferries
This page is devoted to postcards of Thoresen Car Ferries.
An alphabetical list of ships
shown on this page is shown below.
The Table
beneath gives links to complete postcard history pages on selected individual ships. Below the table are official
postcards of the fleet
in chronological order.
Thoresen Car Ferries were formed by Otto Thoresen in 1964, introducing the modern car ferries
Viking I
and
Viking II
on the former British Railways routes from Southampton to Cherbourg and Le Havre. In 1968 Thoresen Car Ferries combined with
Townsend Brothers Ferries
to form
Townsend-Thoresen
. This page only shows the ships in their original Thoresen Car Ferries colours - their subsequent history is covered on the
Townsend-Thoresen
page.
Ships on This Page:-
Viking I
- 1964-68
Viking II
- 1964-68
Viking III
- 1965-68
Viking IV
- 1967-68
Associated Pages:-
P&O Ferries
Townsend Brothers Ferries
Townsend-Thoresen
Ferry Postcards
Cruise Ship Postcards
Ocean Liner Postcards
Simplon Postcards Home Page
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Table of Ship Histories
Name
Other names
Built
Viking I
Viking Victory, European Glory, Neptunia, Media II
1964
Viking II
Earl William, Pearl William
1964
Viking III
Terje Vigen, Scandinavia, Fenno Star, Sandefjord
1965
Thoresen
Fleet List
Viking I
(Thoresen: 1964-68)
Viking I
was built in 1964 by Kaldnes Mekaniske Verksted A/S, Tönsberg, Norway, for
Otto Thoresen
for service between Southampton and Cherbourg. During the winters of 1965/6, she was chartered to Atlantic Steam Navigation for services from Tilbury or Felixstowe to Rotterdam and Antwerp. In 1968,
Thoresen
merged with
Townsend
to form Townsend Thoresen Car Ferries. She worked regular charters for other companies such as
TT-Line
,
Lion Ferry
, Silja Line,
Stena Line
etc. In 1976 she was renamed
Viking Victory
and initiated a new service from Portsmouth to Le Havre/Cherbourg. Other services from Southampton subsequently moved to Portsmouth.
In 1983
Viking Victory
was sold to Cypriot owners and served under various owners as
Sun Boat, Caravan, Vasmed, Sunny Boat
and
European Glory
until 1991 when she was chartered by Hellenic Mediterranean Lines (HML) and renamed
Neptunia
. In
Neptunia
1992 was bought by Hellenic Mediterranean Lines (HML) and renamed
Media II
. She ran on service Patras-Igoumenitsa-Korfu-Brindisi. In 2002 she was sold to Mediterranean Freedom Marine, Limassol and renamed
Media V
for a service between Italy and Albania. Additional postcards in Thoresen colours are available on the complete ship history
on this link
.
Official Thoresen postcard of
Viking I
.
Published by J.Arthur Dixon. Photo by Beken of Cowes.
Official Thoresen postcard of
Viking I
.
Published by J.Arthur Dixon serial SS.6045. Photo by Beken of Cowes.
Le Goubey postcard 348 of
Viking I
at Cherbourg.
Simplon Postcards release sp1074 (issued November 1991) of
Viking I
.
Photographed 1968 by Alistair Deayton.
Viking II
(Thoresen: 1964-68)
Viking II
was built in 1964 by Kaldnes Mekaniske Verksted A/S, Tönsberg, Norway, for
Otto Thoresen
for service between Southampton and Cherbourg. During the winter of 1965, she was chartered to Atlantic Steam Navigation for services from Tilbury to Rotterdam and Antwerp. In 1968,
Thoresen
merged with
Townsend
to form Townsend Thoresen Car Ferries. She worked regular charters for other companies such as
Lion Ferry
and
Stena Line
etc. In 1976
Viking II
was sold to
Sealink British Rail
and renamed
Earl William
for services from Portsmouth and Weymouth to the Channel Islands and Cherbourg. In 1984,
Sealink
ownership passed to Sea Containers. In 1988
Earl William
opened a new, but short-lived, service from Liverpool to Dun Laoghaire. She was laid up in 1990, but reappeared for occasional use on Folkestone-Boulogne and Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire. In 1992 she was sold to Neptunus Lines and renamed
Pearl William
. She subsequently served as
Mar-Julia, Cesme Stern
and
Windward II.
Additional postcards in Thoresen colours are available on the complete ship history
on this link
.
Official Thoresen postcard of
Viking II
.
Published by J.Arthur Dixon. Photo by Beken of Cowes.
Coastal Cards postcard of
Viking II
off the Isle of Wight.
Artaud postcard HN32 of
Viking II
at Cherbourg.
Gaby postcard of
Viking II
leaving Cherbourg.
Note ex-White Star Line tender in the background.
IRIS postcard 1915 of
Viking II
at Cherbourg.
EDICAP postcard 1737 of
Viking II
at Le Havre.
La Cigogne postcard 76.351.254 of
Viking II
at Le Havre.
Yvon postcard 10/7650 of
Viking II
at Cherbourg.
Artaud postcard XR151 of
Viking II
at Cherbourg.
Also issued as XR35.
Viking III
(Thoresen: 1965-68)
Viking III
was built in 1965 by Orenstein-Koppel und Lübecker Mach A/G, Lübeck, for
Otto Thoresen
for service between Southampton to Cherbourg/Le Havre. During the winter of 1965, she was chartered to Atlantic Steam Navigation for services from Tilbury to Rotterdam and Antwerp. In 1968,
Thoresen
merged with
Townsend
to form
Townsend Thoresen Car Ferries
. She worked regular charters for other companies such as
Lion Ferry
,
Fred Olsen
,
Larvik Lines
,
Sealink
and
Stena Line
etc. In 1982
Viking III
was sold to Da-No Linjen for service between Frederikstad-Frederikshavn as the
Terje Vigen
. She passed through various other Scandinavian owners as
Scandinavia
until spending 1990/91 with
Vasabåtarna
and Jakob Lines as
Fenno Star
. In 1992,
Fenno Star
was sold to
Scandi Lines
as the
Sandefjord
, running between Sandefjord-Strömstad. Scandi Line became part of Larvik Line in 1994, and then
Color Line
in 1999. In 2003 she was sold to Saga Linie and adopted the name
Sagafjord
for a service Moss-Skagen. Although repainted in Saga Line colours, the service did not start in 2003. The service eventually began in May 2004, but closed at the end of the summer, with
Sagafjord
being laid up in Horten.
Official Thoresen postcard of
Viking III
.
Photo by Beken of Cowes.
Harvey Barton postcard of
Viking III
in the Solent.
La Cigogne postcard 50.129.18 of
Viking III
at Cherbourg.
Viking IV
(Thoresen: 1967-68)
Viking IV was built in 1967 by Trosvik Verksted A/S, Brevik, Norway for Otto Thoresen's freight services between Southampton-Cherbourg. She passed to
Townsend Thoresen
in 1968, and subsequently worked between Dover-Zeebrügge and Felixstowe-Europoort. She was sold in 1981.
Harvey-Barton postcard of Thoresen freight ferry
Viking IV
and Normandy Feriies'
Leopard
.
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